Explosive Devices Cause Hidden Brain Damage

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan has reinstated one of the worst afflictions of World War I trench warfare: shell shock--injuries and even deaths among troops who have no external signs of trauma but who have been severely damaged by traumatic brain injury (TBI).

The detonation of any powerful explosive generates a deadly blast effect, propagated in a wavefront of high pressure that spreads out at 487 m/s from the point of explosion, traveling rapidly over hundreds of meters. When shrapnel fragments penetrate the skull, conventional ballistic trauma injuries are easy to diagnose, by clearly visible entry wounds, and are treated in a surgical procedure. Yet, blasts also causes invisible damage to the brain, as the blast wave tremors the soft tissue, smashing it against the hard surface of the inner skull.

The symptoms of TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of damage to the brain. The severity of injury is sometimes determined by the period of time it takes for a patient to regain consciousness following his or her injury. Patients with mild TBI often experience memory loss, sleep disturbances, confusion, dizziness, and blurred vision. Those with moderate or severe TBI may also show these symptoms, as well as vomiting, nausea, loss of coordination, weakness or numbness of the extremities, convulsions, and seizures.

According to the U.S. Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (Washington, DC, USA), the U.S. military formally diagnosed 2,121 cases of TBI between October 2001 and January 2007. Neurologists estimate that up to 30% of troops who have been on active duty for 4 months or longer (in both Iraq and Afghanistan) are at risk of some form of disabling neurologic damage. Therefore, while official figures put the number of U.S. troop casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan at 22,600 (as of November 2006), there may be up to 150,000 already suffering from TBI.

Frequently, traumatic brain injury relates to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Overlapping symptoms, such as increased anxiety, short attention span, limited concentration, problematic lapses in memory, can make a diagnosis extremely difficult, as they are mixing several disciplines, all concerning human behavior under acute stress situations.


Related Links:
U.S. Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center